Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

200 THE PIAZZA TALES
distances from the main, sentinel, at long intervals from
each other, the entire coast of South America. In a
peculiar manner, also, they terminate the South American
character of country. Of the unnumbered Polynesian
chains to the westward, not one partakes of the qualities
of the Encantadas or Gallipagos, the isles of St. Felix
and St. Ambrose, the isles Juan Fernandez and Massafuero.
Of the first, it needs not here to speak. The
second lie a little above the Southern Tropic ; lofty,
inhospitable, and uninhabitable rocks, one of which,
presenting two round hummocks connected by a low
reef, exactly resembles a huge double-headed shot.
The last lie in the latitude of 33° ; high, wild, and
cloven. Juan Fernandez is sufficiently famous with-
out further description. Massafuero is a Spanish name,
expressive of the fact that the isle so called lies more
without, that is, further off the main than its neighbour
Juan. This isle Massafuero has a very imposing aspect
at a distance of eight or ten miles. Approached in one
direction, in cloudy weather, its great overhanging height
and rugged contour, and more especially a peculiar slope
of its broad summits, give it much the air of a vast iceberg
drifting in tremendous poise. Its sides are split with
dark cavernous recesses, as an old cathedral with its
gloomy lateral chapels. Drawing nigh one of these
gorges from sea, after a long voyage, and beholding some
tatterdemalion outlaw, staff in hand, descending its
steep rocks toward you, conveys a very queer emotion
to a lover of the picturesque.
On fishing parties from ships, at various times, I have
chanced to visit each of these groups. The impression
they give to the stranger pulling close up in his boat
under their grim cliffs is, that surely he must be their
first discoverer, such, for the most part, is the unim-
paired . . . silence and solitude. And here, by the